El Pibe

I was Brian and so was my wife ...or mockney piers

.aaaanyway. I'm partial to a bit of speculative hitory fiction. I have C.J Sansom's Dominion (the usual in a long tradition of bad guys winning world war 2) ready to go, and from the blurb it seems to share some traits from Man in the High Castle and Fatherland, both of which I enjoyed.

He was pretty instrumental in escalating the conflict, so seems a dubious conclusion to come to. I've a very interesting diplomatic and policy history of the war, much of it based upon transcripts of declassified conversations, many of them in the oval office itself. Basically it boiled down to 3 presidents in a row thinking the war was a very bad idea but each one thinking it had to pursue it in the first term in order to extricate themselves in the second term; political posturing for domestic consumption. President 1 died, 2 retired and 3 did what he said. All told that involved keeping a war going for votes 10 years longer than necessary. We'll never know if Kennedy would have managed to extricate the US from the conflict, but given that withdrawal would have resulted in the overthrow of a client government by a communist insurgency, I can't see how he'd have done it any differently to Johnson. Nixon certainly didn't achieve peace with honour and was probably responsible for the most killing by indiscriminate bombing, but he did finally say, ok we'll lose the war on my watch!! A very interesting read if anyone wants borrowage (once I have it back from lendage)

fuck me, nutters! No date set, will do so after the horrors of christmas. Almost certainly early to mid january i'd have thought.

Looked at the Honda accord recently. Dizzyingly confusing fascia and knobbly bits.

I did fart in your general direction admittedly. Farewell to Dulwich drinks in the new year.

Mine now last on average 3 days. I'm still a bit shaky from the free champagne (not the good stuff sadly) on saturday night.

No hangovers? I'm in like sin!!!!!! http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/getting-drunk-without-the-hangover-or-health-risks--scientist-seeks-investment-for-alcohol-substitute-drug-8931946.html

*sulks*

To be fair they're the only two with any modicum of talent, at least as far as tedious karaoke fest competitions go. I liked Abi too, but there was something horrible about her attempts to appease a format that in no way suited her own talent. She'll be fine, she won't conquer the world but if she can put out some of her own work with a bit of integrity then I'll look forward to seeing her play at the Union Chapel.

My boy has a hamlet scarf and is prone to bouts of Duuuuulwich at the top of his voice. We're looking forward to saturday's cup game. I'll also be taking him to the west brom game for his first taste of the Hammers in the flesh. We'll probably lose though :(

No fair. I did my predictions but for some reason it hasn't saved them. Nul points.

And peckhamgatecrasher, I'll bring the wine, you bring the cheese.

Snorks, Loz and maxxi. And Brendan, all is forgiven.....

"there were undoubtedly ops that were stupid or pointless or, arguably, morally wrong" Funnily enough Loz got reported for his comment mentioning Dresden, with some pretty choice terms. It perfectly valid point if you ask me, surely we should be remembering all the victims of war and remembering what a great folly and monumental waste it is.

Funny, I've been chuckling yo the Tuscany one for years, nice to finally get the background on it. It really is a bit carnival of late. I watched a cushenstown hurling game once in horizontal raindrops the size of dinner plates. It was actually a fantastic game, but carnival it wasn't. It definitely want Tuscany!!!!!!

Because it had hugely strayed off topic,in case you hadn't noticed, perhaps you could start a new thread and strive to keep it on topic. I wouldn't recommend starting it with an administrative policy question for admin, it'll probably end up in the 'about this forum' section.

Is it me or is it harder? I have 2 so far!!

oh jesus, allfornun returns

Linked in is simply a mechanism for me to be refused jobs because I joined before all this sort of stuff was acceptable, put up something flippant about myself, lost my login and without my signtory email address am unable to do anything about it, and thanks to a total lack of customer service and an inability to delete an account am scuppered. Soudcloud lets me listen to some songs for free without having to click 'skip this ad'. Don't really get the comments on the histogram thing, bit weird.

just a music sharing site. youtube music bits without the videos

Fisk avoiding controversy as usual http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/poppycock--or-why-remembrance-rituals-make-me-see-red-8927751.html

"Wake up man, countries like North Korea and Iran do not want nuclear capability for philanthropic reasons." wtf? N Korea already have the bomb, are you suggesting that our armed forces should either invade or are somehow protecting us from them, or from Iran (who don't but after Iraq can you blame them for wanting one)? weird. ---------------------- I can kind of see malumbu's point and jahs point and, predictable, sit somewhere in the middle. I DO think rememberance is enourmously important and we shouldn't take for granted the sacrifices of the generation who fought the good fight. My feelings about the great war are really one of sympathy and pity for a generation betrayed, they certainly didn't die for freedom. Either way I get quite the shivers and sniffles at military cemetries. Of current conflicts it may be a professional army, but that shouldn't in anyway preclude anyone from having a family, indeed I think it probably makes for better soldiers. And the rights or wrongs of the conflicts aside I think most people in the armed forces join for good reasons, and by and large conduct themselves with great professionalism and honour, such that we should still retain pride in what they do, how they conduct themselves, respect the danger and stresses they put themselves through and the many positive roles they play in the wolrd (the more constructive engagement in Afghanistan, their work in the FYRs, Sierra Leone etc, policiing pirate infested seas) even whilst understandably having ambivalence or opposition to many of the policies themselves.

Lots of goodwill going out to you I'm sure CS. Get well soon!!

okey doke, as in south of the river. On first seeing it I originally took transpontine to mean across a bridge, but apparently it actually means across a sea from pontus rather than bridge from pontis, and has ended up meaning American. But I digress...... another good article, he's right, there is something a bit special afoot http://onionbagblog.com/2013/10/27/crap-match-report-35/#content